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THE SCOPE AND CONTENT 



o-S^.^% OF THE 



DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL. 



By GILBERT B. MORRISON 

Principal of the McKinley High School, 
St. Louis, Mo. 



Bead before the 
Philadelphia, Pa., Teachers' Association 
February 1, 1907, 



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III Bxchan^. 
8 My'O^ 



The Scope and Content of the District 
High School. 



Viewed in perspective the liii^h schools of the United States 
presents a decidedly mosaic appearance. That nniformity which still 
prevails in the elementary graded schools is no longer fonnd in 
the secondary schools. Fifteen years ago this diversity was not 
so marked. When the high school stood as a mere extension 
of the grade schools and was known as the ninth, tenth, eleventh 
and twelfth grades, into which was introduced Mathematics, 
Foreign Language and Text-book Science, the same uniformity 
that now prevails in the first eight grades was observable in the 
last four. Indeed this uniformity still exists in a majority of 
the schools of the country, but in the large cities there is a break- 
ing away from this conventional type and as new schools are 
built some departure is observable. Some of the new^r schools 
contain a little Manual Training for first and second year pupils ; 
others have added the working students' laboratory for Physics 
and Chemistry ; others have gene further and have glass cases, 
for fossils and specimens to show to the pupils studying Botany 
and Geology from text-books ; others have added biological lab- 
oratories in wdiich the students study nature at first hand ; others 
have a telescope mounted in an observatory in a tower of the 
building for the study of Astronomy ; others of still more recent 
types have the beginnings of work specialized in various direc- 
tions and are called by such names as "Polytechnic High 
Schools", ''Manual Training High Schools", ''Polytechnic Insti- 
tutes", "English Fligh and Manual Training Schools", "Com- 
mercial High Schools", "Industrial High Schools", "Latin High 
Schools", "Mechanic Arts High Schools", "Classical High 
Schools", "Literary High Schools", "Scientific High Schools", 
"Girls' High Schools", "Boys' High Schools" and 'English High 
Schools". Still others of more recent construction have complete 
laboratories for theoretical and practical work in Science, modern 
shops and laboratories for complete four year courses in the 
Mechanic and Domestic Arts, counting and stenographic rooms 



for complete courses in Commercial branches, elaborate art rooms 
for work in the Fine and Indnstrial Arts, art craft shops for 
the application of the Indnstrial Arts, moulding shops for the 
casting of patterns, and mechanical drawing rooms, to all of 
which is added the complete academic curriculum for the study 
of the literary and mathematical branches ; thus, in fine, em- 
bracing all the essentials contained in those previously enumer- 
ated. 

With this lieterogeneous array of types, all bearing the generic 
title of "High School", it is little wonder that school boards about 
to erect a new school building view the problem with doubt and 
perplexity — little w^onder that many who are unfamiliar with the 
educational development of this country should denounce all these 
departures as fads and proceed to build according to the most 
conventional type. Still less is it occasion for wonder that men 
locally influential in social and political circles but ignorant of 
the laws underlying great social movements should promulgate 
short sighted and ill digested ideas of their own and by the 
power of wealth, force of character or social influence carry their 
fancies into execution. Nor is it to be wondered at that hosts 
of our school men, teachers, principals and superintendents edu- 
cated solely to tread the hard beaten paths of tradition should 
seize the opportunity offered by this apparently sporadic growth 
to defend their cherished idols against wdiat seems to them a 
dangerous encroachment upon the ''fundamental verities". 

Now, important questions arise here. Are these types acci- 
dental, sporadic, merely fortuitous sports, springing up by chance, 
mere transient manifestations of a pathological character without 
logical sequence or endurance? Are they the Avork of strong- 
men working out in different localities this or that pet idea, mis- 
guided zealots creating wants by propaganda and then supplying 
them by personal magnetism, tact or shrewdness? Are these 
new schools, differing so much in character, the results of in- 
dustrial, commercial or social differences of locality? Or rather, 
are they manifestations of the national laws of social progress 
seeking imperfectly to answer the fundamental needs of man, — 
readjustments of the educational machinery in conformity to 
changing conditions? 



Reflection, observation and experience in almost every type of 
school above enumerated have led me to this latter position, and 
it is from this point of view that I shall attempt to survey the 
situation. 

In speaking of the manifestations of natural laws underlying 
social and educational movements I must first dwell briefly on 
the limitation of our knowledge of those laws, and make frank 
confession at the outset that these laws are but imperfectly under- 
stood, that all our knowledge is of a secondary character and that 
nothing can be known in the absolute. Taking an illustration 
from physical nature, we see everywhere that bodies have a ten- 
dency to approach one another and will come together if they 
are not restrained ; but even when so restrained the tendency still 
remains ready to pass into action when the opposition retires. 
The ultimate laws underlying this tendency — gravitation, we call 
it — is and probably always will be unknown. Theories regarding 
its cause are useful only as giving exercise for the mental pow- 
ers and as furnishing tentative hypotheses necessary in making 
new discoveries. But while none may know the law of universal 
attraction all may observe the tendency. And, indeed, all of us 
do observe the tendency and base our plans and our actions in 
conformity to it. 

In the vegetable world we see a seed when placed under the 
combined influences of moisture, earth, and sunlight grow into 
a tree. We see another under, so far as we can see, exactly sim- 
ilar conditions grow into a cabbage. We have not discovered the 
law, but we have observed the tendency. In the biological world 
we see the horse eating grass and grain develop powerful mus- 
cles capable of great speed and endurance. We also see the dog 
eating flesh also develop strong muscles capable of equal speed 
and endurance. We know the horse would die if fed on meat, 
and we know the dog would not live if fed on hay, but we can 
not explain why this is so. In our ignorance of the law and our 
recognition of the fact we get hay for our horses and meat for 
our dogs. We have acquired the habit of acting on the manifest 
tendency, and in our leisure moments we talk learnedly about 
the law. So it is in our educational and social affairs. We ob- 
serve tendencies and sooner or later act on them, but we do not 



6 

know the laws. We only talk learnedly about them. This talk, 
and these experiments, have their uses, for the sum total of their, 
effects constitute a factor in the tendencies, or world movements. 
In pedagogical literature and in educational circles we find 
volumes of statement given out with the presumption of law, 
which after all is only opinion and often very poorly digested 
opinion at that. Take for example commonly expressed beliefs 
like the following: "The study of a foreign language con- 
tributes to facility and strength of expression in the mother 
tongue." "Manual Training makes boys more moral and more 
systematic in their work." "The study of science gives a rever- 
ence for the laws of nature". "The study of the humanities gives 
a purer culture than the study of the practical branches". "The 
study of mathematics strengthens the reasoning powers more 
than does the study of other things". These are only a few of 
the stock sayings heard almost daily and accepted by many as 
truisms, and yet there is not a particle of trustworthy proof to 
support the truth of any of them. We have but to subject them 
to the processes of rigorous proof to show that they are only 
mere opinions. Take for example the first quoted: that "the 
study of a foreign language contributes to facility and strength 
of expression in the mother tongue". To prove this we should 
have to find a large number of individuals exactly alike who had 
always been under the same environment and experienced exactly 
the same influences, — individuals with exactly the same powers 
of future development. One-half of these individuals would then 
have to be subjected to a training in foreign language added to 
their course of study, and the other half be subjected to a train- 
ing with these languages left out. During the process of this 
training all the individuals of one group would have to be in 
exactly the same environment as the other group. They would 
need to have the same hopes, the same fears, the same ambitions, 
the same recreations, the same number of hours of work and play, 
the same kind of food and the same number of hours for sleep. 
At the completion of their course they would have to be tested 
by competent examiners in all the forms of written and oral 
expression, in all subjects on which they possessed any knowl- 
edge, the judges making the examination not possessing any 



knowledge concerning the classes to which the individuals be- 
longed. If it were then found that all the members of the group 
studying foreign language stood decidedly higher than all those 
studying their own language, then the contention that these 
studies do give this ability would be proved. 

Now it is of course laughably manifest that nearly all the con- 
ditions in this supposed test are impossible and absurd. Then 
why is the contention any less so ? The claim then, that the time 
given to the study of language gives greater facility in the use 
of the mother tongue than the same amount of time put in on 
the mother tongue and other studies can not be accepted as a 
law of the learning process, and therefore, can be received only 
as an opinion. Furthermore, this opinion would be valuable only 
to the extent that it was held chiefly by those who were in no 
wav interested in it financially or professionally — held only by 
intelligent students and observers of affairs to whom in the out- 
come there was no personal gain or loss. 

I must guard here against a possible misunderstanding. Of 
course I am not giving this as an argument against the study of 
foreign language in the high schools. It is only given as a cau- 
tion against fallacious reasoning and groundless claims. Any of 
the other statements quoted from other departments of learning 
would have served for the illustration just as well. Every one 
of them is almost as often disputed by authority equally com- 
petent. We can, therefore, receive them only as opinions. 

In face of a multitude of conflicting opinions and practices in 
our schools, and confessing our inability to find ultimate causes 
and laws what are we to do when the problem of building a 
school presents itself? The answer to this question seems to be 
that we have only to get into the trend of the evolution of events, 
of national and world movements, and so far as we can after 
adding our own contribution, our own opinion, conform to them 
and proceed in full recognition of that selective process which 
our race like the rest of the biological chain employs for the 
purpose of attaining in the fullest measure the things which con- 
tribute to life and happiness. No longer governed by dogma 
and opinion we must try to think historically. 

It is a universal tendencv to choose and adopt the useful, and 



to discard the useless. This tendency is often thwarted for long 
periods of time by an opposite tendency to follow a practice that 
has crystallized into habit and ceased to be useful. In the long* 
run it is the practice that offers the best service that will pre- 
vail. This is of coursee but the expression of an optimism that 
the world is improving, — that the race with a sufficient time al- 
lotted selects wisely. 

Turning now to the question of what a district high school 
should contain, we have to ask what are the national tendencies? 
What have been our recent efforts in conforming to them? And 
how can we improve upon these efforts and make them more 
effective, more in line with world tendencies ? The elements which 
immediately concern us in this discussion are the same elements 
which have resulted in the differentiation in high school func- 
tions, elements some of which have found their places in separate 
schools. These elements stated interrogatively are as follows: 
I. Should boys and girls be taught together in the high school 
or should they receive instruction in separate schools? Should 
Manual Training be taught in the high school, and if so, should 
it be placed in a special school with a modified course of study, 
or should it be placed in a few manual training schools only? 
Or, should it be placed in all schools for the first year or two to 
be finished later in the special manual schools? Or, rather, 
should it be placed in full four year courses in the district high 
school? 3. Should commercial branches be taught? If so, 
should separate schools be built, or should they, like Manual 
Training, take their full p'lace in the district high school? 4. 
Should the public schools foster class distinction or should these 
lines by all possible means be erased? The answer to the last 
question will furnish the background for the answer to the pre- 
ceding ones. 

Consistent with the opening paragraphs of this paper, I shall 
not here attempt to oft'er arguments for or against any of these 
questions. I shall simply point out tendencies which seem to be 
conforming to, or conflicting with the general onward movement. 
We will now consider these questions in the order named. 

I. Should boys and girls be taught in separate schools? Co- 
education in the high schools is the prevailing system in the 



United States and the growth and tendency in this direction is 
so evident that were it not interesting to glance at the history 
of this movement nothing further would need to be said. Owing 
to the inferior place which woman has occupied in the past, she 
has been, as additional advantages have from time to time been 
provided, the last to receive the benefits of them ; but the attitude 
toward the education of girls has been becoming more liberal 
year by year. The early separation of girls and boys in a few 
large cities in the Eastern States was due partly to a conserva- 
tism inherited from Europe; and here it may be said that this 
conservatism, this adherence to English precedents was one of 
the two opposing influences that were active during the Colonial 
period. This spirit of imitation had its opposite in a spirit of 
protest which many of the colonists brought with them, — a spirit 
still active and probably responsible for most of the changes which 
have been taking place since the problems of higher education 
first confronted the pilgrim fathers. 

This separation was perhaps partly dus to traditional, academic 
reasons which have always possessed the minds of many teachers 
and parents against co-education. Much of this sentiment in 
favor of girls' schools was borrowed both from womans' colleges 
and from men's colleges in the East, which held strongly to those 
experiences of college life which only a residence in college halls 
can give. 

Returning to the consideration of that reluctance which has 
been shown towards extending to girls the advantages which have 
from time to time been given to boys, it will be interesting to 
recall that in 1850 no provision whatever in the city of Boston 
had been made for girls for a high school education, and that 
the curriculum of a girls' high school finally established was so 
meager that it was not till 1878 that its graduates could be ad- 
mitted to college. In 1892, only fifteen years ago, if I am cor- 
rectly informed, neither Latin, French nor German was taught 
in the girls' high school of Philadelphia, and until that time no 
girl in this city could prepare for college in any high school, 
while for many years previously this preparation had been given 
to boys. In Baltimore, it is only in the last five years that girls 
in the high schools could prepare for college. 



10 

Twenty years ago when the question of adding Manual Train- 
ing to the high schools first arose, there came no suggestion that 
it would be wise or desirable to ofifer such training to girls. All 
the arguments were for providing for boys, and all of the first 
installments of Manual Training were for boys only. Even now 
in small towns where it is being introduced the girls are left out 
of the first plans, and are thought of only after the boys have 
been provided for. 

In about 1830 there was a great revival in education, which 
was spontaneous and extended throughout the entire country. 
High schools in nearly all towns were established and no dis- 
tinction was made on account of sex. These schools were open 
to both sexes, and girls could for the first time enjoy the same 
advantages as boys. Thus were the girls in the smaller cities 
and towns, even in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, permitted 
to prepare for college for nearly fifty years before the same privi- 
lege was enjoyed by the girls of Boston and Philadelphia. 

One of the leading causes which led to the admission of girls 
into the high schools was one of economy. In small towns sep- 
arate schools could not be afforded even had there been boys and 
girls enough to fill them. Thus by force of necessity were these 
schools established in the face of tradition. Once begun there 
was no tendency to change them. They grew in numbers and 
improved in quality. Cities in all parts of the country increased 
in population, became rich, and outgrew the necessity of edu- 
cating boys and girls together, but no tendency arose to build 
separate schools and so co-education has become a fact and ex- 
hibits itself as a universal tendency. 

The social advantages which co-education gives resulting in a 
truer, saner, knowledge which one sex mav gain of the other, 
and the restraining, balancing influence which one has on the 
other seems to be everywhere admitted, and will undoubtedly hold 
the sexes together in the same school for all time to come. The 
tendency seems to be independent of the age and advancement 
of the student, for it is extending to the colleges, as a glance 
at statistics will show. 

In 1870, 30 per cent of all the colleges of the United States 
were co-educational. In 1880, 51 per cent. In 1890, 63 per cent, 



11 

and in 1898, 70 per cent. Statistics showing the increase from 
1898 to the present time are not at hand, but from the rate shown 
in the years given, and from our general observation, it can not 
be less than 85 per cent. And this estimate, let it be remembered, 
includes all colleges, even those maintained by private endowment. 
State universities and all schools of lower grade maintained at 
public expense are, without exception, co-educational. Co-educa- 
tion is admittedly a world tendency. 

But while the sending of boys and girls to the same school will 
probably continue for all time to come the belief that they should 
be taught together in the same classes is not so universal, and 
limited segregation is in many co-educational schools being made 
a subject of experiment. This need not be discussed here. If 
with a fuller knowledge of the intellectual needs of boys and 
girls it can be shown that they should be taught separately in a 
part or all in their studies and exercises, the question will not be 
one of building separate schools ; it will be simply a question of 
internal classification. 

2. Should Manual Training be taught in the high schools? 
On Manual Training as a world movement, I quote from my 
monograph in the Fourth Year Book of the National Societv for 
the Scientific Study "of Education : 

'*One of the most obvious and impressive facts bearing on the 
whole matter of Manual Training in the schools was set forth 
and revealed to the world at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition 
at St. Louis in 1904. The fact is plain and will be admitted by 
all without argument. It is this: Manual Training in the 
schools of all the countries in the world has become universal. 
No town in any country represented in that vast array of the 
world's best work undertook to make an exhibit without a dis- 
play of handicraft of some sort. This does not mean that every 
school in the world has Manual Training, for there are many 
still without it, but it does mean that every town and city taken 
as a unit has accepted it. 

Universal expositions reveal world tendencies, and this is strik- 
ingly exhibited in the case of Manual Training. The Inter- 
national Exposition of 1851 at the Crystal Palace marked the 
beginning of a movement in industrial education — education 



12 

through the executive functions — that has cuhninated in a world 
movement exhibited at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 
1904 at St. Louis. France had taken first place in the markets 
of the world for the beauty and finish of her manufactured 
articles. At the exposition of 1851 the cause of this excellence 
was revealed. An exhibition of the work of her schools showing 
great accomplishments in the line of industrial education set other 
countries to thinking. All the leading countries of Europe im- 
mediately took the cue and proceeded to make technical educa- 
tion a feature in their schools. This was done not as a matter 
of theory or sentiment, but as a necessity. Each country recog- 
nized that in order to hold its place in the markets of the world 
it must look after the education in skill, and the executive func- 
tions of its youth. 

Germany began early, perhaps in a small way even before France, 
but it was not till the Paris Exposition of 1867 that Germany 
began to show to the world her rapid progress ; and at the Menna 
exposition of 1873 her exhibit, according to the best information 
I can obtain, excelled all others. 

An exposition at St. Petersburg marks Russia as occupying 
an important place in this movement. It was here that Victor 
Delia Vos first exhibited the system of tool practice that has 
formed the groundwork of ^Manual Training schools since that 
time. This system, usually known as the Russian system, was 
first exhibited in this country at the Centennial Exposition at 
Philadelphia in 1876. It was the first attempt at giving instruc- 
tion and practice in the principles underlying the various me- 
chanical trades without teaching trades as such. Four years later 
the St. Louis Alanual Training School was opened for boys. This 
famous school in connection with Washington University, and 
organized under the direction of Prof. C. M. Woodward, is still 
in a flourishing condition. 

The growth of Manual Training since that time is a matter 
of common knowledge. It has been a period of advocacy, of 
strenuous controversy of school house building and of the grad- 
ual expansion of the Manual Training idea until there is at the 
present time none to oppose it. It is admittedly a world move- 
ment and as such should have a place in every scheme of second- 



13 

ary education. This will probably be generally admitted but there 
is not the same unanimity as to the relation it should bear to 
other studies and to the other departments of the schools. It is 
still an unsettled question, and is at present the most critical 
problem in high school building. The question may be put in 
the following form: Shall Literary, Classical, Commercial and 
IManual Training High Schools be built separately, dividing the 
pupils into more or less distinct classes at the entrance of their 
high school course, or shall they all start together in the district 
high school and be allowed to differentiate at the end of the first 
or second year into the special schools? Or, should all of the 
district schools be built after one normal type, each complete in 
itself, and containing shops, laboratories, counting rooms, art 
and mechanical drawing rooms, lecture rooms and class rooms 
complete for carrying on all of those studies and exercises which 
public demand and experiment have proved to be essential in 
modern secondary education? 

In treating this subject, and in answering these questions I 
have undertaken to point out universal tendencies. I am in other 
words trying to get into step with general progress. But if I 
were to lead up to the answer of these latter questions in logical 
order I feel I would be in danger of obscuring the main tendency. 
I shall, therefore, in order to hold your attention, give the con- 
clusion first and then carefully trace the steps by which it has 
been reached. The conclusion is this : The district high school 
should be complete in itself and should contain all the units of 
secondary education for the entire course. The number of the 
more specialized schools which have within the past fifteen years 
been built in various parts of the country would seem to negative 
this conclusion. This is whv I am safe-guarding it by a careful 
approach, and by putting you on guard against receiving this 
fact as one showing the most general tendency. The placing of 
these later branches in separate schools under another principal 
was a necessity, but this necessity was temporary, and will dis- 
appear, if it has not disappeared already. These branches were 
placed in separate schools because their educational and practical 
values could be demonstrated in.-, no other way. The conserva- 
tism which always stands on guard against all innovations made 



14 

it impossible fifteen years ago successfully to install Manual 
Training, or a practical Commercial course In the old high 
schools. It failed wherever it was tried. Like all new organisms 
these new branches needed a sheltered environment. They needed 
a school with a principal in full sympathy with them — a principal 
possessing the requisite knowledge and ability to plan the course, 
and given the freedom to carry it forward. 

A curious and interesting fact in the growth of school systems 
may be noted here. It is that tendency to set the newly acquired 
studies off by themselves. The first illustration of this may be 
remembered by a visit to the old Latin and English high school 
of Boston. This building was planned by Mr. John D. Philbrick 
and marked an important step toward the introduction of science 
into the high schools. This transition left its mark on the build- 
ing. The two assembly rooms on the third floor each capable 
of seating 800 persons would of course serve the purpose of a 
modern high school by uniting them into a single room capable 
of seating the whole school, but it was necessary at the time of 
erecting this building in 1877 to provide separate rooms for the 
classical and mathematical students, and those taking the English 
and science branches. These two classes of students were not 
allowed to assemble together ! The relation which in some locali- 
ties still lingers between Manual Training and Commercial 
branches and the rest of the school existed between the Classical 
and Science branches thirty years ago ! 

Manual Training High Schools and Commercial High Schools 
were built in various cities, containing in their curricula varying 
amounts of academic work. They have all succeeded and have 
drawn students in great numbers, but the tendency of these 
schools has been to add more and more of academic work to their 
courses till some of them already have the full high school course 
of study contained in other schools preparing their pupils for all 
courses in college. Some, like those of Denver, Kansas City, 
Indianapolis and St. Louis were made complete at the start and 
they all became immediately popular. 

As an illustration of the nature of the demand for this type 
of school, I may refer to an occurrence which happened in 1901 
in Kansas City and Denver simultaneously. The rapid growth 



15 

of these schools at both these places was so great and so much in 
advance of that of the older high schools that an organized at- 
tempt was made to remove the foreign languages from the course 
of study, and notwithstanding that the attempt was led by many 
of the leading school men of both cities it was overwhelmingly 
defeated. Not only were these languages retained but still other 
additions were made to the curriculum. At mass meetings called 
to oppose this change, the citizens gave as reasons why the course 
should remain complete: That they wanted Manual Training, 
but that they wanted their children to have a liberal education; 
that they wanted their children to prepare for college and to 
share the highway to knowledge equally with children of the 
other high schools ; that they did not want to be ostracized from 
the time honored channels of study as a price for Manual Train- 
ing; that they wanted no class distinction shown to those who 
did not want Manual Training. 

And right here we find the keynote of this whole question and 
here we shall find a world movement away from caste and class 
distinction, and toward democracy in all social and educational 
affairs that will* justify the cosmopolitan character of the district 
high schools. At this point I shall ask pardon for a digression 
of some little length to show that, thinking historically, we can 
not escape the conclusion that any permanent reversion toward 
class distinction — any separation of boys and girls entering high 
school, which removes them from the general highway to knowl- 
edge on the one hand and from the influence of practical and 
useful things on the other will be resisted by the American people. 

In this digression we need but to glance into the history of 
nations as revealing this tendency toward greater social unity. 
Popular education has always been gaining ground and is now 
receiving more attention than at any other period in the past. 

The French Revolution was a movement toward popular edu- 
cation and popular intelligence, which is now everywhere counted 
as an element of national wealth and power, and no nation fails 
to make provision for the free and equal education of its people. 

Germany through the illuminating influence of Pestalozzi and 
from its humiliation resulting from the wars of Napoleon has 
made ample provision for bringing education to all of its people. 



16 

Secondary education there for a long time was limited to the 
gymnasia where the sons of the ruling classes were educated for 
the learned professions. But the establishment of the Real- 
Schools brought a high school education to the level of the com- 
mon people and was a long step in the direction of caste elimina- 
tion. True, the humanistic character of the gymnasium on the 
one hand and the practical character of the real schools on the 
other have been the occasion of a sharp conflict between the re- 
spective advocates of the two forms of education, but the general 
result has been a tendency towards a greater toleration toward the 
lower classes and a better mutual understanding between oppos- 
ing factions. Both of these types of schools have courses of nine 
years each and there is really little difference between them. 
There is a growing belief that a little less Latin and the substi- 
tution of Chemistry for Greek, which is about all the difiference 
between them, does not justify a claim for superior culture for 
the gymnasia, and there seems to be no reason except class pre- 
judice, which is fast disappearing, why these two courses should 
not be pursued together in the same building by the different 
students choosing them. The dift'crences between these different 
types of schools in Germany have been gradually disappearing. 
They now have the ''Gymnasium", the ''Realgymnasium" and 
the ''Oberrealschule", and these schools have within the last six 
years been declared by royal decree ''to be considered equal in 
value from the point of view of general culture". This principle 
once recognized, the economy of placing all the students in the 
same locality together in the same school where the selective pro- 
cess can take place naturally becomes manifest. The social rela- 
tions which the students following different courses create in 
school will be carried out in their lives after they leave it. 

In France the spirit of the revolution of 1789 was democratic 
and was a movement toward popular intelligence, and the Con- 
vention of 1793 not only established schools for the masses but 
made attendance in them compulsory, and while foreign discord 
prevented the execution of this law, its passage revealed a ten- 
dency. The world mission of Napoleon against the crowned 
heads of Europe was to break down caste and class distinctions 
and the system of education which he established in 1806 has 



17 

resulted through many changes between successive backsets and 
victories in a system which has placed France in the foreground 
among the nations of the earth. 

Secondary instruction in France was provided by the lyceums 
which correspond to the German gymnasia. At first like the 
gymnasia they were exclusively literary, Latin and Greek being 
the leading subjects taught, but they have from time to time 
undergone changes which bring them into close relation with the re- 
quirements of the present age. The system has been divided into 
two courses, one giving prominence to the ancient languages, the 
other to mathematics and the natural sciences, and both courses 
are pursued in the same school. 

A system which combines literary and technical instruction was 
started in Paris as early as 1872 and has since that time been 
gradually enlarged, and that class distinction which has separ- 
ated the children into caste groups is disappearing. While the 
idea of educating the youth for some definite trade still pre- 
dominates in France as it does in Germany, and as it probably 
should, my present purpose in using these facts is to show that 
beneath it all there is a principle which is making for democracy 
and is narrowing the gap between the so-called higher and lower 
classes, and between those pursuing humanistic studies and those 
choosing branches which lead to economic efficiency. 

Even the unprogressive nations of Asia are showing this ten- 
dency. Japan has thoroughly modernized its system of education 
and now has a comprehensive school system for all the people. 
Greece and Italy now have modern systems, and Belgium, Den- 
mark, Norway, Sweden, Spain and Portugal all have some sys- 
tem of popular education provided by the pubHc tax. Even China 
has within the past year shaken itself and has emerged with the 
most radical reforms probably ever made in so short a time by 
any nation— reforms all in the direction of educating all the 
people and toward the elimination of social or acedemic class dis- 
tinction. 

It will of course be understood that I am not claiming that 
class cult, flunkeyism and caste is not still prominent in these 
countries when viewed from an American standpoint. I am only 
pointing out that it is gradually becoming less, and that the gen- 



18 

cral trend is toward democracy and away from class distinctions. 
England was the last country to fall into step in this universal 
progress. The organized aristocracy of that country held it in 
bondage for centuries and it has only in the past few years recog- 
nized the rights of the masses in educational matters. The sledge 
hammer blows of Dickens, the rival denominational factions 
aroused by the school work of Bell and Lancaster, and the in- 
fluence of other countries have at last weakened the grip of the 
aristocracy, and the struggles of- the past few years puts Eng- 
land on the map of universal progress. Even the aristocratic 
schools of Eton, Winchester, Harrow and Rugby are said to 
have made some improvement, but on good authority they still 
possess some of the Archaic characteristics of the famous school 
of Dr. Blimber, one of the best of all the caricatures of Dickens. 
I have referred to this sui generic position of England and the 
medieval character of these schools for the purpose of reminding 
you of some of the things which we Americans inherited, and 
also that the universal tendency is toward a more perfect unity 
in the schools. 

During the colonial period this inheritance was revealed in the 
character of the old grammar schools whose main purpose was 
to fit the student to pass a college examination, and these exam- 
inations were chiefly in Latin and Greek. The following were 
the requirements as stated in the seventeenth century: 'AVhen 
scholars had so far profited at the grammar schools that they 
could read any classical author into English and readily make 
and speak true Latin, and write in verse as well as prose ; and 
perfectly decline the paradigms of nouns and verbs in the Greek 
tongue they were judged capable of admission in Harvard Col- 
lege". The name ''grammar school" w^as certainly appropriate in 
those days, but the name still clings to us though "grammar 
schools" as such have long since passed away. The name has 
descended to the elementary schools where it would seem there 
is the least justification for it, and they still carry it along with 
their other burdens. 

Li the Colonial schools social distinctions were sharply de- 
fined and they were conducted in the interests of the professional 
classes. There was no provision in higher education for the 



19 

middle classes and none whatever for girls. This remarkable 
condition was our inheritance from England. Since the Colonial 
period through the academies and public high schools a trans- 
formation has been gradually going on and the caste spirit has 
almost disappeared. But the high school became inadequate to 
the growing demands of the times and in order to take the for- 
ward step which the people demanded it became necessary to 
revert in some measure to the class division in order to remove 
the new branches far enough from the obstructions of extreme 
conservatism to demonstrate their right to a place in the curricu- 
lum. This separation of the pupils whose parents from long 
inheritance and custom would choose for their children the hu- 
manities, from the pupils whose parents from lack of education 
and opportunities would choose the so-called "vocational studies", 
is a step toward a reversion to the old class idea. But the point 
I would emphasize here is that this step is only temporary and 
merely incidental to the transition toward modern requirements 
which is now in progress and is everywhere manifest. It is, it 
seems to me, one of the throes of readjustment. T'he anomaly 
of separation will cease when the right of the new studies to a 
place in the curriculum has been dmonstrated, and I think we 
are about ready to agree that the demonstration has already been 
made. The temporary evil effects of class distinction and separa- 
tion made necessary by existing conditions can not long obscure 
the broader principle everywhere manifest — the principle of class 
elimination. The minds of our educators have within the period 
of this transition become sufficiently broadened by the new out- 
look to render the new branches safe in their hands. This is 
probably enough to prove broadly my conclusion stated in ad- 
vance, that our children should not be separated at the door of 
the high school; but a few additional references to our experi- 
ences in making this transition will be of interest. I shall take 
one illustration from the United States, and one from Germany 
and both will show how liable ment are to explain effects by 
wrong causes, especially when under the bias of a preconceived 
notion. 

The first of these illustrations is furnished by Henry A. 
Pritchett, ex-President of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 



2()- 

nology, in an address- at the Boston meeting of the National 
Teachers' Association. In this address he contended that boys 
entering his institution from the Hterary high schools were su- 
perior to those coming from the manual training schools ; that 
while the literary high school boy showed at first less aptness and 
skill in the shops, he showed more intellectual grasp, more real 
ability and in the long run came out ahead of the manual boy in 
his studies ; and that the manual boy seemed to lack the refine- 
ment and culture possessed by the literary boy ; Mr. Pritchett 
seemed inclined to attribute this difference to the superiority of 
the humanities as training, even for a course in technology. Let 
us assume for the sake of argument that his statement was true 
as to facts, and that his data were sufficient to justify his conten- 
tion. Had he taken a broader view of the contributing elements 
in fitting a boy for college he would have taken these boys in 
comparison before they entered the high school. One of them, 
the literary boy, may have come from a cultured home, descended 
from a family which had for generations been fortunate and able 
to receive and assimilate the best in wealth and obtainable educa- 
tion. . The other may have come from a home that had not known 
these things, and had not inherited those powers and graces pos- 
sessed by the ruling classes. One may have started out with all 
the capital which an inheritance of continued success had given 
him. He may have lacked only one thing, experience with prac- 
tical things and skill in practical knowledge, and he might not 
have lacked even these had not an arbitrary division denied him 
the use of the shops and the association with boys of practical 
experience. Likewise the manners, refinement and bearing which 
the manual boy lacked might in some degree have been acquired 
in daily association with the literary boy had he not been separ- 
ated from him at the door of the high school. 

The other illustration showing the danger school men are in 
when reasoning from cause to effect, I shall take from the report, 
or memorandum as it was^called, which was issued by some 
German professors in a contention that the real school did not 
turn out so high a class of students as did the gymnasia. This 
memorandum was issued about twenty-five years ago, shortly 
after the establishment of the real schools. In answer to that 



'^1 

part of the document which claimed that the superiority of the 
students in the gymnasia was due to the studies in them, I made 
reply in the October number of the Educational Advance in 1882 
in the following words : 'Tirst, in Germany the University is 
the only medium of approach to the learned professions of law, 
medicine, etc. Until quite recently the gymnasium was the only 
medium of approach to the University. No one will deny that 
as a rule students in Germany who are preparing for the pro- 
fessions are mentally superior to those preparing for a business 
life outside the professions — that they at least by virtue of their 
tastes possess more scholastic ability. The real schools were 
established in answer to the necessity of furnishing in the shortest 
time a thorough preparation for a non-professional, active life. 
Consecjuently these schools, even though the studies in them might 
possess superior disciplinary value, did not attract those who were 
seeking the learned professions. The gymnasium was still con- 
sidered the only medium to professional or scholastic excellence 
and hence continued to receive those who were seeking the highest 
excellence — those possessing the highest natural ability. It is a 
fact of common observation to those who have had any experi- 
ence in college life that the classical course has ever been held 
up to students as possessing superior merit and by those who 
receive their support from the institution in which the study of 
the classics predominate. Thus the best students have ever been 
attracted to these studies ; and the mental excellence they after- 
wards evinced might have been due not so much to the studies as 
to the natural capacity which these selected students brought to 
them". Now I am not advancing the claim or even admitting 
that all the ability, culture and refinement are found in the Ameri- 
can literary high schools and in the German eMnnasia. or that 
all the mediocrity, crudeness and boorishness are to be found in 
the manual training schools, and real schools, far from it. It 
is indeed becoming quite conspicuous that owing to the growing 
belief in the culture value of a practical education many boys and 
girls of cultured parents are being sent to the so-called vocational 
schools, and on the other hand many uncultured parents who 
would secure for their children a higher social standing than they 
themselves have enjoyed are sending to the literary schools which 



22 

they think will secure for them the social plane they seek. But 
the examples givn in Mr. Pritchett's address and in the Gernian 
professor's memorandum do serve to show how easy it is to se- 
cure examples to prove a pre-assumed theory. 

The busy world is fast outgrowing the belief in the peculiar 
educational advantages of this or that study per se. Even the 
schools, the last to yield to this world tendency, have been con- 
sciously or unconsciously moving in this direction, and even the 
temporary artificial separation made necessary to demonstrate the 
right of so-called vocational branches to a place in the courses 
of study has served its purpose, and in some of the newer schools 
in our large cities the studies and exercises are taking their true 
place with the others in a single building. 

This tendency toward the elimination of the class feeling which 
the intermingling of all pupils in subjects which they have in 
common is accomplishing, is the most important work when 
broadly considered that the schools are doing today. Boys and 
girls from all courses, classical, commercial, literary, scientific, 
and manual training, reciting together in the same classes in Eng- 
lish, language, history or mathematics, become known to one an- 
other, and this association is breaking down those social barriers 
and artificial distinctions which have caused so much sorrow and 
injustice in the world. They are learning that there is just as 
much honor and true value so far as social standing is concerned 
in one study as there is in another. The children with aristo- 
cratic ideas are learning by contact something of the value of 
those simple, sturdy and homely virtues possessed by the common 
people, and the children from the homes of these common people 
are by imitation and association acquiring something of those 
manners and graces of which they would otherwise be deprived. 
This privilege is priceless and has been enjoyed in our public 
high schools since their establishment. It is really their most 
valuable characteristic and will certainly be retained in the re- 
adjustments to newer conditions which are now being made. The 
present transition period through which the schools are now pass- 
ing will close with the district high school par-excellence — a high 
school normal to the times and comprising all that it is proper 
and best for any child in the district to receive in a school of 
secondary grade. 



23 

The objection so often and so earnestly urged that this ten- 
dency is loading the course with too many studies, that it is dis- 
sipating the child's powers with a multiplicity of studies is not 
valid. There is, I think, general agreement that the number of 
studies and the variety of work which a child can carry has its 
limits. But the new school does not increase necessarily the num- 
ber of studies to be taken; it only increases the number from 
which to choose. 

This brings us to a consideration of the elective system— 
another tendency which is more and more requiring compactness 
in method of serving the studies and keeping them close together 
in order to furnish the various combinations selected by dif- 
ferent pupils. The choice of "courses" such as "English", 
"classical", "scientific", etc., which the high schools have since 
their first establishment offered to pupils shows that the elective 
principle has been working from the start. The changing and 
multiplying of these courses from time to time have suggested 
inevitably its extension so far that the choice finally comes to be 
one of subjects instead of prescribed groups or courses. How- 
ever, the necessity of certain constants in language, mathematics, 
history and science has with few exceptions been maintained. 
The Committee of Ten reflected this tendency and within the 
limitations of these constants recommended the largest possible 
freedom to the student and his advisors. The opinion is rapidly 
gaining ground that the schools should adapt themselves to the 
diverse talents of the pupils and as no students have exactly the 
same aptitudes, and, stating the resulting inference in an extreme 
form, every one should pursue a different course from everv 
other one. This view has been reinforced by the action of such 
universitiesT as Leland Stanford, the state universities of Indiana 
and others in receiving students on a quantitative instead of on 
a qualitative basis. The committee of ten expressed itself on 
this point in the following words : "That the colleges and scien- 
tific schools of the country should accept for admission to ap- 
propriate courses of their instruction the attainments of anv 
youth who has passed creditabl}' through a good secondary school 
course, no matter to what group of subjects he may have mainlv 
devoted himself in the secondary school". The committee of 



24 

fourteen in the main reflected the same tendency, that with the 
retention of certain constants or "norms" the principle of elec- 
tion be recognized. 

This diversity which results either from free or modified 
election makes the composite and comprehensive character of 
each district school inevitable. The tendency of this system ex- 
pressed in the broadest terms is one of great elective diversity, 
and at the same time one of great spiritual and social unity. Is 
this not as it should be? In the world at large there is and al- 
wavs must be great diversity of occupation. And the tendency 
toward an universal social and spiritual unity will be the crown- 
ing achievement in human progress. 

In planning a new school the matter of first importance is 
the building. Courses of study can be changed and improved, 
but the building stands as a monument of wisdom and foresight, 
or as a caricature of ignorance and shortsightedness. A build- 
ing for a modern high school which is to contain all the work 
indicated in the foregoing must constitute a complicated plant 
and it should represent the combined knowledge and skill of 
architect, artist, engineer, superintendent, principal, and teacher 
specialist for each and every department. Light, heat, ventila- 
tion, number and size of rooms, width of corridors, shops, labora- 
tories, art and drawing rooms, gymnasiums and auditoriums, are 
matters of first importance. In every building which has thus 
far been erected there is revealed along with an increasing ex- 
cellence, a tendency to error as well as a tendency to sacrifice 
utility and fitness to architectural effect, but in our newer build- 
ings there is welcome evidence that the architect is now willing 
to share the responsibility of this complex task of school house 
building, with those who know the needs of the various depart- 
ments. 

The new modern district high school contains besides the 
usual number of class rooms and a large auditorium, art draw- 
ing rooms, drafting rooms, five large shops for the mechanic 
arts, domestic science laboratory, domestic art rooms ; rooms for 
commercial branches — stenography, typewriting, and bookkeep- 
ing, with a counting room for office routine ; laboratories for 
studying physics, chemistry, physiography, and biology; a 



25 

library ; a lunch department including a large dining room, 
kitchen, check office and refrigerator room ; and two gymna- 
siums, one for boys and one for girls. 

On page 26 I have endeavored to show in convenient 
form a schedule of studies which the building of such a school 
house contemplates. 

It may be noted here that there is an opinion, latent, grow- 
ing and widespread, that the high school of the future will con- 
tain six years instead of four, but as a considerable length of 
time must probably intervene before it can be fully realized, it is 
for present purposes probably best to think of our schedule on 
the conventional basis of four years. 

From this schedule it will be seen that four years courses 
are provided in business or commercial work, mechanical and 
art drawing, English, history and economics, French, German, 
Greek, Latin, Spanish, Domestic arts. Domestic science, me- 
chanic arts, mathematics, music, physical culture, natural science, 
physical science, and technical science. With the exception of 
Greek all the courses here named are on the increase in schools 
of this kind. Present tendencies seem to point to the elimina- 
tion of this language from the secondary schools in the near 
future. 

From this schedule any combination of courses can be de- 
vised to suit the various opinions concerning such matters. But 
it is suggested in view of the growing tendency toward flexi- 
bility, that the making up of pupils' courses be entirely individ- 
ual, each pupil's needs and desires being considered separately 
and his work made up term by term from a partial cross section 
through the schedule. This selection for each term is made 
horizontally from the schedule and the progress from term to 
term through the course proceeds vertically. 

I remember with great distinctness the remark of Supt. 
Brooks of this city (Philadelphia) when I showed him this plan 
ten years ago when I was visiting the chief cities of the country 
preparatory to the building of a school in Kansas City whose 
Board of Education had commissioned me to study different 
systems then in vogue. After looking it over carefully. Dr. 
Brooks said: "It is an ideal plan if you can get it adopted. 






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27 

You may be able to do it in Kansas City where on account of 
its youth there is still flexibility, but it would be impossible at 
the present to accomplish it in one of the older cities, especially 
the great cities in the East where things get pretty deep in a 
rut". These were his words as near as I can remember them. 
But great things have been accomplished in these cities in these 
last ten years. While it is quite true that our great cities are 
conservative and slow to move out of long established custom, 
sometimes waiting many years before adopting new lines of 
policy, it is also true that when they are finally moved to take 
a step it is usually a very long one which often carries them 
far beyond those localities which took the initiative. This is 
possible because of the greater wealth of the large cities and the 
greater power of collective intelligence when it is once aroused. 
The small towns often pave the way and demonstrate the new 
departure. The large cities then come forward and do the 
thing in a better way. The plan just referred to was adopted 
in Kansas City substantially as you see it here and a building 
erected to carry it out. The constants finally adopted by the 
Board were English, four years ; mathematics, three years ; sci- 
ence, two years ; and manual training, two years. All other 
studies were elective. On entering the school the pupils were 
given a schedule of the leading colleges of the country showing 
their requirements for admission. This enabled them to choose 
their course intelligently. During the seven years of my con- 
nection with the school an average of eighteen per cent of the 
graduates entered college, and the great range and flexibility 
of the studies attracted hundreds for a longer or a shorter time, 
who would otherwise never have attended high school at all. 
The school attracted all classes, rich and poor alike. It became 
very popular and in six years reached an enrollment of eighteen 
hundred pupils, and I am informed that it still maintains its 
former characteristics, and continues to hold its place in public 
esteem. To those pupils who expect to go higher this school 
prepares for any university, and for all others it is truly the 
people's college. 

This, in brief, is the history, not only of the Kansas City 
school, but also of those of a similar character in a few other 
cities. 



28 

Within this ten years one of our older and more conserva- 
tive cities has accomplished substantially the same thing in a 
better way and in a much finer building. St. Louis has within 
the past four years built the McKinley School. It is a district 
high school and is equipped for carrying the work shown in 
this schedule. With the exception of the course in technical 
science and the one in music the studies and exerises are the 
same. The pupils select their studies by groups called courses, 
there being nine of these, each one containing besides the usual 
constants a line of special work pursued as a major. 

It may be said of the two plans, the election by studies and 
the election by groups, that each has its own advantages and dis- 
advantages, and a decision in favor of either at the present time 
w^ould be a matter of opinion. But a long historical look at the 
question seems to point toward the plan of ultimate individual 
selection. 

This St. Louis school was the happy result of a non-part- 
isan school board with Dr. C. M. Woodward as one of its 
members, and a wisely constructed departmental system with 
Supt. F. Louis Soldan at its head. It was my good fortune 
after the school had been planned and the building well under 
way to be called to the principalship. The school has enrolled 
at the close of its third year fifteen hundred pupils, which is 
the limit of its capacity. 

The Yeatman High School has since been built for another 
district, and with the exception of thirteen additional class rooms 
which have been added to the McKinley, the Yeatman is an exact 
counterpart of it. A lot for another high school has been pur- 
chased in still another district and it is the intention of the 
Board to build the new school on the same comprehensive plan, 
with the improvements suggested by time and experience. This, 
I believe, will be the type of high school which will be recog- 
nized generally as normal to our present stage of educational 
progress. 

The problem of school house building can never be com- 
pletely solved without considering the cost. These comprehen- 
sive buildings with their extensive equipment are expensive. 
This will, of course, have to be recognized and frankly admitted. 



21) 

The question then follows : Should this c(|nipnient be placed 
in every district? or installed only in certain centres farther 
apart? The question is easy to answer. If the shops, labora- 
tories, drawing- rooms, counting rooms, etc., when placed in the 
district high school were to remain for any considerable por- 
tion of the day unoccupied and unused, then this equipment 
would l)e extravagant and the money expended on them could 
be put to better use. If, on the contrary, this special equipment 
is in use during the full school day; if the limit of its capacity 
is reached by the number of the students electing the work, then 
it would be as economical as it could possibly be; provided of 
course that we assume the right of election either by courses 
or by subjects. The final answer to this question can not be 
made till these schools have been sufficiently multiplied to fur- 
nish the necessary data. At present we have to divine the 
tendency by observing the facts in the few cases we already 
have. So far as I know the equipment is employed to the limit 
of its capacity in existing schools old enough to have all classes 
fairly representative. The McKinley High School has just fin- 
ished the third year of its existence and every department is 
already crowded to overflov/ing. The shops, drawing rooms 
and commercial rooms are insufficient to accommodate our pres- 
ent enrollment of fifteen hundred pupils, about forty per cent 
of whom have to the present time elected these subjects. We 
mav assume this to be a somewhat exceptional case and still 
have room for the inference that these installations will never 
stand idle wherever they shall have been put to a fair test. This 
then seems to answer the question of economy. 

In conclusion I venture the suggestion that the broad prin- 
ciples of differentiation and election outlined in the foregoing, 
places our secondary schools in a position for a still further dif- 
ferentiation that will enable them to expand and to meet the 
growing demand for ''industrial" education now making its ap- 
pearance on our educational horizon. A system inherently elastic 
and democratic will respond to growing tendencies and demands 
without a revolution, or a reversion to caste types. 



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